 Philobiblon is one of the oldest clubs in America for book collectors. In 1993 it celebrated its centennial with a banquet, an exhibition, and this small volume bearing an introduction by the club's longtime president, George Allen.

The booklet includes on its final three pages “A short-title list of items exhibited in Some of Our Best Friends: Books Selected from Collections of Members of the Philobiblon Club, at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, 12 February – 9 May 1993,” and that is preceded on pp. 153 by a reprint of “A loan collection of decorative bindings, rare books, manuscripts, and other bibliographical specimens from the libraries of Philadelphia,” being the catalogue of an 1893 book exhibit at Philadelphia's Academy of the Fine Arts that partly led to the Club's formation. This is not a social history of the Club, but rather an excellent snapshot of its founding and centennial members' leading book interests.

 Boyd, the great head of the Princeton University Library and later professor of history, kept the gentlemen of the Philobiblon Club awake with his after dinner account of themurder by poison of Whyte, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and subsequently a judge in Virginia and opponent of slavery, at the hands of Wythe's sister's 17-year-old grandson. The death of a black teen-aged servant of Wythe's in the same atrocity is not glossed over, and one bit of the talk turns on Virginia's admission (or not) of the legal testimony of “Negroes” in a case such as Wythe's became. There is a “Bibliographical note” on p. [47].

The Princeton Library catalogue record for this work states that P.J. Conkwright, the legendary designer and typographer at the Princeton University Press, designed the book. One would suspect that it was printed at the Press as well.

 A facsimile of this Colonial American “fragment” is printed here with a good introductory essay by Samuel W. Pennypacker (a governor of Pennsylvania and a major bookcollector), with the title-page of the 1758 original reading: A fragment of the chronicles of Nathan ben Saddi; a rabbi of the Jews. Lately discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum: and translated from the original, into the Italian language. By the command of the king of the Two-Sicilies. And now first publish'd in English. Constantinople, Printed, in the year of the vulgar aera, 5707. The work is, in fact, a satire by a member of the Proprietary party in Pennsylvania, dealing with the political controversies of the province during the early years of the French and Indian war and the personalities involved. It takes the form of a mock-Biblical account of the arrest of William Smith for allowing a translation of an article from Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette to be published in the German newspaper under his control. A key to the pseudonyms is provided by the great Pennsylvania bibliographer Charles Hildeburn, in his hand on two blank pages of the original 1758 printed book.

“Of this book one hundred and fifty copies are printed on hand-made paper.” The title-page is printed in red and black.The 15 plates offer a fine facsimile of the 1758 rarity, presented with good margins on that good paper.

 Nearly New. Bound in brown paper boards, printed in black. In a protective box that is lightly chipped and with a spot or two of fading/discoloration; book in fine condition. (35756)

 The great bibliographer and friend of Dr. Rosenbach (and of many American, British, and French bibliophiles and booksellers) entertained the gentlemen of the Philobiblon Club with a good and sympathetic account of Count Casanova, the publishing history of his memoirs, and the fate of the manuscript of the same.

 Schulz (1897–1944) was a distinguished collector of books and manuscripts and an important employee of the international bookselling firm of Jacques Rosenthal where he was a research associate. The present essay is a translation of his Aufgaben und Ziele der Inkunabelforschung, written when he was only 27: In it he “summarizes his particular approach to the study of incunabula” (Introduction, p. iv). It was published in 1924 in an edition of only 40 copies on the occasion of Jacques Rosenthal's 70th birthday.

The introduction is by Bernhard Bischoff (the distinguished paleographer, historian, and philologist) and the work's editor was Rudolf Hirsch (the dynamic librarian of the University of Pennsylvania, identified in the “Editorial Note” merely by his initials); both men knew Schulz.

“Five hundred copies of this essay have been printed at the Bird & Bull Press, North Hills, Pennsylvania. Copies 1-200 for distribution to members of the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia.” The work is printed in Baskerville type on Strathmore Artlaid paper.

 Limited to 300 (unnumbered) copies, signed by Stern and printed by W. Thomas Taylor, Austin, Texas, who also designed the work (“The types used are Baskerville & Bulmer”). Stern gave this talk before the Philobiblon Club; the text “Appeared previously in the American Book Collector in a somewhat shorter form” (Preface). Includes bibliographical references (pp. 73–81).

Stern was the life and business partner of Leona Rostenberg, their firm of Rostenberg & Stern having been one of America's most respected during the post –WWII period and known for its dealing in early printed books Dufief (1776?–1834) was a refugee from the French Revolution who from 1793 to 1818 lived in Philadelphia, where he taught French and ran a bookstore. Among the libraries he acquired was the large residue of Benjamin Franklin's!

 “An essay read before a meeting of the Philobiblon Club at Philadelphia on 24 October 1940, and now privately printed for the Members of the Club” (title-page). The colophon tells us: “Two hundred and fifty copies, printed by Edmund Thompson at Hawthorn House, Windham, Connecticut, were complete on the last day of the year nineteen hundred and forty. The type is Bulmer, hand set; the paper Worthy Charta. The portrait of Emerson is a wood-cut by James Britton, and is issued through the courtesy of Edwin Valentine Mitchell.”

The title-page is printed in black with two blue lines; the portrait of Emerson is in blue on a pale ochre field; the colophon incorporates a large blue “H.”

Lawrance Thompson (1903–73) was a member of the English faculty at Princeton University and the official biographer of Robert Frost.

 Thorp (1899–1990) was a literary historian, an editor, and a critic who taught at Princeton University for more than 40 years. Here he seeks to resurrect interest in 19th-century American literature. He gave this paper as a talk to the Philobiblon Club in 1945, and the last three pages contain a list of members of the club at that time.

 New. Bound, as issued, in quarter blue linen with marbled paper boards, title stamped in gold on spine. With the glassine wrapper. (35759)

 This is the text of “an address given to the Philobiblon Club on 19 April, 1973.” Whitehill, the former director and librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, begins by pointing to
similarities between social organizations in Boston and Philadelphia and then gives a history ofthe Club of Odd Volumes, the Boston book collecting club founded in 1887.

This brief history was printed in an edition of 250 copies at the Bird & Bull Press. The Press's bibliography says: “Title line and colophon [are printed] in Arrighi; the text [is] printed in Garamond type on Hodgkinson's Bird & Bull paper” and the wrappers are “Burnt Sienna roller-printed paste paper . . . [with the] title on [a] paper label on [the] upper cover.”